Consequences of the Development Gap.
For your five chosen countries, compare them in terms of Infant Mortality, Adult Literacy, Life expectancy in education (male and female), % of population undernourished.
Marginalisation:
mexico marginalisation summary.pdf
Measuring the Extent of Income Disparities within countries.
In many countries, the scale of disparity within the country is a greater issue than the disparity between countries.
The Gini Coefficient is a measure of statistical dispersion that is used to show the extent of income equality. It allows analysis of changes in income inequality over time in individual countries and comparison between countries.
The coefficient varies between 0, which reflects complete equality and 1, which indicates complete inequality (one person has all the income or consumption, all others have none). Graphically, the Gini coefficient can be easily represented by the area between the Lorenz curve and the line of equality.
On the figure to the right, the Lorenz curve maps the cumulative income share on the vertical axis against the distribution of the population on the horizontal axis. In this example, 40 percent of the population obtains around 20 percent of total income. If each individual had the same income, or total equality, the income distribution curve would be the straight line in the graph – the line of total equality. The Gini coefficient is calculated as the area A divided by the sum of areas A and B. If income is distributed completely equally, then the Lorenz curve and the line of total equality are merged and the Gini coefficient is zero. If one individual receives all the income, the Lorenz curve would pass through the points (0,0), (100,0) and (100,100), and the surfaces A and B would be similar, leading to a value of one for the Gini-coefficient.
It is sometimes argued that one of the disadvantages of the Gini coefficient is that it is not additive across groups, i.e. the total Gini of a society is not equal to the sum of the Ginis for its sub-groups.
The Origins of Disparity
Disparities in New York:
Income
Focus Two – Disparities in New York City – Residence
Visit the districts of New York you identified as being at the extremes of wealth – using Street View in either Google Maps or Google Earth. Collect some images (screenshots) of the extremes. Look at the availability of affordable housing.
Focus Three – Disparities in New York City – Ethnicity
Explore the maps here: http://130.166.124.2/ny_1.html Look for maps for the year 2000 to compare different ethnicities.
Focus Four– Disparities in New York City – Education and Employment
Go to The New York Times- Mapping America: Every City, Every Block. Explore the available data to find disparities in employment and education between the districts.
Go to the New York City Department of City Planning Community District Profiles. Explore the available data to find disparities in employment and education between the districts.
Focus Five – Disparities in New York City – Health
Health Disparities in New York City
Disparity in London:
Work through this unit from Geographyalltheway.com.
Regional Contrasts in Brazil
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| Alphaville is one of Brazil’s oldest, biggest and best-known walled communities. Based outside São Paulo, it was established in 1978 for a metropolitan elite who wanted sanctuary from inner-city crime. |
How does a walled compound such as Alphaville demonstrate both the causes and consequences of regional disparity?
The factors affecting internal disparities fall can be classified by
- Residence
- Intra-Urban variations
- Ethnicity
- Employment
- Education
- Land Ownership (tenure)